Schenectady, Rensselaer, East Greenbush latest to say yes
Communities in upstate New York continue to ponder the benefits of Vegas-style casinos as the deadline for full proposals draws near. Developers and their gaming partners must submit detailed plans and formal resolutions of support from their respective communities by June 30.
The Schenectady County legislature voted 13-0 last week to support the $300 million Rivers Casino & Resort at Mohawk Harbor. The project is the brainchild of Rush Street Gaming Chairman Neil Bluhm, who is behind the Sugar House Casino in Philadelphia, and the Rivers casinos in Pittsburgh and Des Plaines, Illinois. Bluhm has partnered on the project with the Galesi Group development company.
A proposed casino on the Hudson River across from Albany has received approval from local officials. The Rensselaer Common Council voted May 3 in favor of a casino proposed by Flaum Management and the Chickasaw Nation’s Global Gaming Solutions.
In East Greenbush, the Town Board voted 5-0 last Thursday to endorse the construction of a $300 million casino planned by Saratoga Casino and Gaming and its partner, Churchill Downs Inc.
“Economic development is key to the growth of our town,” Supervisor Keith Langley said.
Opposition to the casino was virulent, prompting Councilwoman Sue Mangold to say, “We’re probably not getting elected again, any one of us.”
Cara Benson, of the anti-casino group Save East Greenbush, warned, “It will not be what you think they’re promising.”
In Nichols, home of Tioga Downs, CEO Jeff Gural has announced the formation of an “All In” Community Coalition with a website to answer any questions about the proposed $90 million expansion that would turn the racino into a destination resort.
Gural didn’t hedge his bets when discussing his eligibility for a casino. “I shouldn’t say this, but I would be really surprised if I didn’t get this license,” he told reporters at a coalition rally.
Meanwhile, a Canadian team will bid on a casino license to transform a depressed region at a Thruway stop a mile from downtown Amsterdam, according to the Albany Times-Union.
Clairvest, a Toronto-based company that develops and operates casinos, has partnered with Great Canadian, a British Columbia-based casino and racetrack operator, whose assets include Hard Rock Casino Vancouver and Casino Nova Scotia. The team is looking at a 512-acre site, and will present its proposal to the community in the coming weeks.
“People will see this is truly a destination,” Amsterdam Mayor Anne M, Thane said. “It’s time to spread some of that wealth to the west. This could truly, truly transform our community. I think there’s a tremendous amount of support in our communities for this project.”
No decision has yet been made on a casino planned for the town of Tyre, but that community too has a vocal anti-casino faction. Casino-Free Tyre has challenged a May 12 decision by Acting State Supreme Court Justice W. Patrick Falvey dismissing the group’s request to declare the town’s Planned Unit Development law null and void.
According to the Finger Lakes Times, anti-casino activists say the town amended its zoning code simply to accommodate Rochester-based Wilmorite, which is interested in building a $350 million casino and resort on an 83-acre parcel of land near the Thruway.
“It merely accommodates the developer’s wishes, not the wishes of citizens who live and own property in Tyre,” said Casino-Free Tyre representative Desiree Dawley. “The citizens, who will bear the brunt of this controversial gambling enterprise, have been ignored in this process as the Town Board has given Wilmorite ‘carte blanche’ on their quest to be outside the town’s commercial zone. We believe our case had, and still has, merit to prove that there was spot zoning as well as improper public notice.
“Tyre is not a community in which a casino should be sited and forced upon the vulnerable people of this beautiful, rural, agricultural and religious area,” Dawley said.
Meanwhile, one casino development proposed for New York’s Catskill Mountains seems to have been tabled by a developer concerned that casino proposals in Orange County would create too much financial uncertainty for others further upstate.
According to Newsday, Trading Cove New York has bowed out of its bid to develop a casino resort in Thompson, Sullivan County, in the Hudson Valley. And Foxwoods, the tribal casino company from Connecticut, may be rethinking its plan to redevelop the historic Grossinger’s resort in the former Borscht Belt.
“The possibility of a casino operation in Orange County has made the certainty of securing financing very difficult,” said John Gallagher, a spokesman for the proposed Foxwoods Catskills Resort. “However, we are still exploring our options at this time.”
Orange County, which is closer to the population base in New York City, has proven attractive to major casino operators. Both Caesars Entertainment and the Genting Group have pitched gaming halls in Woodbury and Tuxedo, respectively. Caesars has partnered with Rochester-based developer Flaum Management Co. Inc.
Saratoga Casino and Raceway, which operates a racetrack casino in Saratoga Springs, has also proposed a casino in Newburgh, Orange County. And two other proposals have been floated in the county.
The prospect of competition in Orange County has some Sullivan officials seeing red. The Mid-Hudson News reports that Legislative Chairman Scott Samuelson and members of the Rural Economic Area Partnership last week reiterated Governor Andrew Cuomo’s intention that casinos be developed in financially straitened areas, places in need of an economic boost.
“It makes no sense that we would be in a competition with (Orange County) over something like this. We have got to keep pounding that message home,” Samuelson said. “We are the place, and it will happen here,” Samuelson said.
